Nineteen and In Love
by LuckyPenny123
Summary: Because even with a war on, life goes on and James will know how to throw a good party!


**I'm not really sure what this is, only that it's the end of my mocks and I feel like doing something other than school work. If you like, let me know. If you don't, tell me why!**

**Disclaimer: Obviously I am indebted to JK Rowling**

Nineteen and In Love

Lily Evans stood, arms hugged to her chest, looking around the little room. It wasn't anything special but it was home and her having to leave was almost too much to bear. The day had been spent boxing up photos, chucking old clothes in the charity bag and sifting through twenty years' worth of knick knacks and oddities. She hadn't ever thought she'd want to cry at the sight of the ugly china cat that had once sat on the fire place or burst in to tears at the sight of her father's old faded, thread bare mustard yellow trousers but she did. She did and it was breaking her heart.

Trembling, she made her way across the room and dropped the old grey blanket that had sat at the end of the sofa in to the bag of things to take, desperately trying to keep memories of laughing movie nights and summer evenings curled up on the couch at bay. Things like that just weren't to be thought of.

Ever since she had come back for the summer and Tuney had announced they were selling the house, the two sisters had desperately been trying to sort through their parents things. To say that Rose and Charles Evans had a lot of stuff was possibly the understatement of the year. The house was filled with oddments picked up over the years; a faded kaftan from Turkey, a china cat from Scotland. They were, or had been, the kind of people who couldn't resist a good bargain, the kind of people that attracted bits and bobs to them wherever they went and as a result, the kind of people whose small house in Cokeworth was cluttered and fraying and full of life. Or it had been. Now the walls were bare, the memories slowly being stripped away and their two teenage daughters exhausted from the work.

Petunia Evans trotted down the stairs, her perfect hair falling out of its chignon after the long day of work and paused in the lounge. It was this lounge where Lily had received her Hogwarts letter, this lounge where she, Petunia, had told her parents her A-level results, this room where she had announced her engagement to Vernon. The thought of her parents no longer being there, her no longer having anyone to tell things to, no one to look at her with that parent pride was devastating and Petunia Evans was, to say the least, devastated.

With one last glance, she picked up the bag and hauled it out to the car at the front. She then returned to the house, shouted a goodbye to her sister and left. She had done enough; it was Lily's turn now.

Left alone in the empty house, Lily Evans sank to the bare wooden frame of an old bed, feeling, not for the first time, that awful, debilitating sense of grief sweep over her. It was her fault... She could've done something... If only she had been there... The thoughts swirled round her mind, filling her brain with nauseating, heart-wrenching guilt. She remained that way until a knock on the door reminded her she had work to be done. Hurrying done the stairs, she opened the door to let James in, grabbed the keys off the hook, pushed him out of the house and pulled the door firmly shut.

James Potter was a very interesting character and what's more, on this occasion, very interestingly dressed. He stood head to toe in a cream suit, a thin grey tie gracing his front and his lopsided glasses stuck together with a lot of sticky tape.

"Sirius smashed my glasses," he said by way of greeting and then pulled the red head towards him, dropping a quick kiss on her lips, "How did it go? Darling Pet already left?"

"Yes and don't call her that. And why _are_ you dressed like that?"

"That, my dear friend, is for me to now and you to never, ever, ever-"

"Oh shut up, you idiot."

With a gasp, James staggered back a few paces. "Oh the injustice of it, I am going out with a tyrant who doesn't appreciate my romantic gestures, who cares nothing for me as a person and-"

He was broken off by Lily's indignant "Oh, get on with it."

"Fine, fine. Marlene gave me this for you to wear. She says you need to do something about that face of yours. Possibly transfigure it in to something slightly more appealing..." Lily, laughing, pushed him in the side, "Hey, I'm just relaying the information. I think your face is perfectly lovely. Although you could do something about that nose..." He laughed as Lily spluttered indignatly, before reaching round her to open the door and push her through it, "Go change, oh beautiful one. And be quick about it."

It was a very confused (and lovely) looking Lily who left the house fifteen minutes later to find her boyfriend and Sirius Black waiting outside her door.

"And the lovely lady returns," Sirius grinned broadly, taking her hand to his lips. "Enchanted, my lady, enchanted..."

"Be quiet, you." She turned to James expectantly, "Care to tell me what's going on?"

"Mmmm... No." With that he took her hand, Sirius holding the other and the three twisted on the spot.

They emerged in an empty field, the sound of music drifting lazily through the air.

"Ok really, what _is _going on?"

Unsurprisingly, both Sirius and James ignored her question, the latter taking her hand and striding across the field. A few minutes later they entered a very different scene.

A white marquee stood in the middle of the lawn, bunches of flowers tied to the stand and the grass littered with small gold chairs and-

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LILY!"

From the corners of the field and out of the trees emerged smiling, laughing people. Marlene Mckinnon ran towards the party, throwing her arms around the red head. She was closely followed by Remus Lupin and Peter and then Hestia and Alice and Frank and there were still more of them coming. Lily stood with her mouth agape, her eyes prickling suspiciously with tears. After the dreary day it was so much to take in. The bright colours, growing mound of presents, jolly band in the corner... It was a moment from someone else's life. But it was a moment to make the most of and, with a small cry of pleasure, Lily threw herself at her friends, for once not caring how or why but knowing, knowing with all her heart that they loved her.

The sun started to sink in the sky, fairy lights in the trees coming on and still the party thrived. Remus was in the corner, doing a drunken impression of Peter. Marlene laughed as Sirius whirled her around a dance floor. Hestia Jones was sitting in a chair telling anyone who cared to listen how she had almost slayed a dragon and Lily- Lily was everywhere; dancing with Sirius, laughing with Alice, teaching Frank to tango. James sat in the corner, watching her as she smiled for the first time in weeks, as she threw her head back and laughed the laugh he had missed so much and when she came to sit beside him and sighed the sigh that meant she was happy, he knew he had done a good job and that he loved her with all his heart.

And later that night, when he pulled her away from the rest of the guests and produced a small velvet box, no one was at all surprised because after all, they were nineteen and in love and they weren't going to let anything stop them.


End file.
